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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700721">Challenge Day 4: The Fade</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoboapostate/pseuds/Hoboapostate'>Hoboapostate</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Solavellan Hell Art Challenge 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fade Dreams, Solas is Fen'Harel (Dragon Age), Solavellan, Solavellan Fluff Friday, Solavellan Hell, Solavellanhellartchallenge2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:49:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,239</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700721</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoboapostate/pseuds/Hoboapostate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A simple walk in the fade, but this time Solas is not alone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Lavellan/Solas, Fen'Harel | Solas/Female Lavellan, Lavellan &amp; Solas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Solavellan Hell Art Challenge 2020 [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1703923</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Challenge Day 4: The Fade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                                                                                                   </p><p>The familiarity of the fade gave him peace, it had always been like that. <br/>He had spent thousands of years here, watching the expansion and growth of the spirit world. It was something that he had known, the only home for him during his long slumber. Solas had sought wisdom, shared knowledge with spirits that had treated him kindly in return and sharing their knowledge and wisdom with him as well.<br/>Waking up was something that had been unexpected, as was the world that he had woken up to.<br/>A world that was shaped into something unfamiliar, into something truly terrible. <br/>The village that he once had called his home was destroyed due to the long time of his slumber, and everything that his people had built was now long gone. <br/>Waking up was like walking through a world of tranquil, everything was cut off from the fade that was separated from the waking world thanks to the veil. <br/>The elvhen folk had lost that connection as well, had started to age and fell completely apart. <br/>Some had rebelled against the invasion of the human race, reduced to a nomadic life with a shattered history, calling themselves Dalish. They were stubborn, had not wanted to learn that their knowledge was incomplete and wrong, at least for the most parts. <br/>He had given up after trying to teach them a few times, being called a liar and a madman from each one of the clans. <br/>Nothing more than a flat ear in their eyes and too proud to see the truth. <br/>Other elves were living in cities, acted more human than elven, living in poverty and shame. <br/>But the elves that were living in Tevinter, elves like Ashalle...they had to endure the worst existence he could imagine, being enslaved, nothing more than pets and animals to the humans that captured them. <br/>Powerful mages that had built their empire on the ancient relics of the elvhen folk, his folk. This was not what he had intended for them, not what he had tried to gain with his rebellion and the forming of the veil which had locked the evanuris away for good. <br/>He may have tried to shape the world new for the elves, but he had managed to let it become even more horrible for them. They should've lived in freedom, reign over themselves without any gods that gave them orders but truly living for themselves. <br/>That was the life that he had wanted for them.<br/>Solas only found peace in the familiarity of the fade after having seen the way that the world had succumbed to. He enjoyed the solitude of wandering through the endlessness of it, took joy in the simple company of spirits.<br/>Tonight was the first time, that he visited his sacred place with someone else. <br/>That certain someone was walking next to him, taking in the wonders that the fade had to offer for the first time in her life. <br/>He knew that Ashalles magic had been suppressed, and she never had been able to dream and walk the fade like this. With big eyes she stared in wonder, expression full of awe as soon as she took in the green glow that surrounded them, the grass that grew beneath her feet and the black city floating in the distance yet remaining above them. <br/>And he watched her, taking this new world in, with such wonder in her blue gaze, it made his lips twitch up into a soft smile. With a careful observation of her face he noted the flicker of anxiety that crossed her eyes. But the excitement was way larger than the fear, the curiosity she had with everything new she learned overpowered her phobia of demons. <br/>With a step to his side her shoulder brushed against his own, sought for the familiarity of his body in order to make her feel safe. <br/>Solas gave into that touch, a subtle brush, a gesture that had started to grow so much on him, a gesture he almost anticipated, as soon as he heard her footsteps approaching him.<br/>His Fingers slipped into hers, as he grasped for her Hand, gave her an anchor to hold onto. A thumb brushed over the scar on her wrist that had been caused by the shackles she had to wear all those years, living that dreadful life of a slave. <br/>This was not what he had wanted for her and the thankful smile that she had flashed him made him feel even more guilty. He was the one that had brought this up on her. <br/>Of course, he wasn't the one that had caught and shackled her, but he was responsible for the world that it had happened in. It made him realize that this mistake of his was grander, because she had given it a familiar face that he had to look at every day.<br/>"I've never imagined, that it would be so beautiful.“ she breathed, now watching the swaying leaves of the broad meadow with astonishment. "The grass feels so real.“ Ashalle added laughing, as she took a few steps to feel the illusion of the soft blades of grass with her bare feet. She tugged him along with her, and he could only wonder about the fact that he let her. <br/>"It is real in a way, I suppose.“ he answered, taking the trees in the distance in as well, while they walked over the green meadow. <br/>It felt peaceful, walking like that, just enjoying the simplicity of the moment that they shared. Enjoying the laugh and the expression of awe on her face while he couldn't help to smile as well. <br/>Everything seemed to be so easy with her, no matter if in the waking world or here in the fade. The fade only added up to that, made it more easy for him to touch her. <br/>It was an unsettling thought that she was able to catch his attention in either way like that. <br/>Unsettling, that she was able to pull him in, the way she did. <br/>This shouldn't be happening, he was not supposed to have relations with anyone. He was supposed to keep his distance, to stay level-headed and in control to fulfill what he had to do in the end, when they got his orb back from Corypheus.<br/>But she made it so hard for him, when she flashed him that mischievous little smile, when she realized, that he had fallen prisoner to his own mind again, gazing at the world deep in thought.<br/>"The field is so wide. Let's run.“ she exclaimed before she picked up speed, pulling him with her and forced him to match the pace she fell in, and he followed, because he knew she loved to run, loved to feel this freedom after all these years locked up in a mansion. <br/>The laugh that came out of her lips was the most precious sound he could imagine right now, the copper locks were swaying behind her in the wind that he had created and it was so easy for him to give in. So easy, to fall into her pace like that, running over the grass, without any more thoughts about what he had to do.<br/>With her he felt free once more and the calm and collected expression he always showed fell from his face, as he let himself be swayed by her.</p>
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